A new 'OPEC' for a greener future

Posted on 14 September 2011

A scientist at the University of York will today announce a new project aimed at producing valuable biomass-derived chemicals, materials and fuels from waste orange.

Professor James Clark, of the Green
Chemistry Centre of Excellence in the University’s Department of Chemistry,
said the project will examine ways of extracting value from orange peel using
safe and sustainable chemistry.

Waste is a problem worldwide. Food residues
and by-products are being generated in very significant quantities by the food
industry and the agricultural sector

Professor James Clark

Christened the Orange Peel
Exploitation Company (OPEC), the project is a partnership between researchers from
York, the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and the University of Cordoba, Spain.

Professor Clark will make the
announcement in a special presentation sponsored by the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation at the British Science Festival at the University of Bradford on 14
September.

Professor Clark says: “Waste orange
peel is an excellent example of a wasted resource. In Brazil, the world’s largest producer of
orange juice, half the orange fruit is left as waste once the juice has been
recovered. This corresponds to three million tonnes a year of orange peel that
can be used to produce chemicals, materials and fuels.”

OPEC will
target products including bio-ethanol, the widely used additive in domestic
products d-limonene, and mesoporous carbons that can be used as water
purifiers, as well as chemical commodities such as cresol, all of which have
the advantage of being bio-derived.

Professor
Clark says: “The by-product of the juicing industry therefore has the potential
to provide a range of compounds, offering
a more profitable and environmentally valuable alternative to current waste use
practices. We are seeking to do this by
harnessing the chemical potential of food supply chain waste using green
chemical technologies and use nature’s own functionalities to obtain
sought-after properties in everyday products.

“Waste is a problem worldwide. Food residues
and by-products are being generated in very significant quantities by the food
industry and the agricultural sector. Though they are sometimes used in
low-value applications, they are often landfilled, which is economically and
socially unacceptable as well as representing a major loss of resource.

“The
increasing demand for renewable feedstocks is encouraging the re-use of organic
waste from the food supply chain for the production of novel added-value
materials, chemicals and fuels.”